The result of the presentations by the San Jose Vietnamese Community delegation on December 12, 2006, led by Prof. Nguyen Xuan Vinh, retired professor and aerospace scientist, are seen in this document signed by Rosa Perez, Chancellor, and Prof. Nguyen Xuan Vinh.  It is unprecedented in condemnation of the Communist government of Vietnam using a planned student exchange trip in January 2007 for propaganda purposes.

The issue arose in the Vietnamese community following publication of information of the GEO exchange arranged by the late (resigned) president of San Jose City College, Xu Hui Tsang, Mai Le Ho, Ethnic Studies instructor, and Vu Duc Vuong, a journalist recently employed as a community college sociology instructor and well-known to be favorable to the Hanoi government while living in America since the 1960s.

The chair of the Vietnamese community delegation, Prof. Nguyen Xuan Vinh, is a retired professor of astronautics who came to the U.S. for education in 1962.  In 1965, he earned the first Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering conferred by the University of Colorado.  He had previously been the head of the South Vietnamese Air Force.  In 2006, Prof. Nguyen Xuan Vinh received a lifetime achievement award from the American Astronautical Society for his contributions to the space program and his trajectory theory.  He has lived in San Jose since retiring from the University of Michigan, where he was a full professor for nearly thirty years. 

A photograph of the delegation with Chancellor Perez and the text of the agreement (with signatures) are posted in the Photo section of Viet-Am Review.   Full coverage of the events of November 11 and December 12 at the SJECCD Trustees methings may be seen on http://vietsanjosecali.blogspot.com

Congratulations to the SJECCD Chancellor, the Board of Trustees, and the large segment of the Vietnamese community who protested the program of recruiting foreign students from Vietnam for local community colleges.

Jean Libby, editor
Viet-Am Review